Page:MKGandhi patriot.djvu/115

100 dead, stricken with this terrible disease. The numbers during that day reached a total of twenty-three, of which twenty-one proved fatal.

At once Mr. Gandhi took the matter into his own hands. Sending word to Dr. Pakes, who was acting for the Medical Officer of Health, and to the Town Clerk, he hurried off in company with an inspector to the scene of the trouble, and began a hand-to-hand fight with Death. With Mr. Madanjit and four Indian volunteers, he broke open an empty store, converted it into a hospital, and collected the patients from the different stands. Dr. Godfrey, also an Indian, soon joined them, and rendered extraordinary service throughout that day and the following night. Probably their promptitude in separating the infected men saved Johannesburg from an appalling disaster.

Late in the afternoon, the Town Clerk held a conference with Mr. Gandhi on the outskirts of the location, and thanked him for the work which had been done, but added that no further provision could be made for the patients that day. He would leave them to Mr. Gandhi's care, authorising any expenditure that he deemed needful. "To-morrow morning," he said, "some suitable place will be found."